In the process of shipping an item from one location to another, a protective packaging material is typically placed in the shipping container to fill any voids and/or to cushion the item during the shipping process. Some commonly used protective packaging materials are plastic foam peanuts and plastic bubble pack. While these conventional plastic materials seem to perform adequately as cushioning products, they are not without disadvantages. Perhaps the most serious drawback of plastic bubble wrap and/or plastic foam peanuts is their effect on our environment. Quite simply, these plastic packaging materials are not biodegradable and thus they cannot avoid further multiplying our planet's already critical waste disposal problems. The non-biodegradability of these packaging materials has become increasingly important in light of many industries adopting more progressive policies in terms of environmental responsibility.
These and other disadvantages of conventional plastic packaging materials have made paper protective packaging material a very popular alternative. Paper is biodegradable, recyclable and renewable; making it an environmentally responsible choice for conscientious companies.
While paper in sheet form could possibly be used as a protective packaging material, it is usually preferable to convert the sheets of paper into a low density cushioning product. This conversion may be accomplished by a cushioning conversion or cushion producing machine, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,026,198; 4,968,291; and 5,123,889, for example. (These patents are all assigned to the assignee of the present invention and their entire disclosures are hereby incorporated by reference.) Such a cushion producing machine converts sheet-like stock material, such as paper in multi-ply form, into low density cushioning pads or dunnage.
A cushion producing machine, such as one of those disclosed in the above-identified patents, may include a stock supply assembly, a forming assembly, a gear assembly, and a cutting assembly, all of which are mounted on the machine's frame. During operation of such a cushion producing machine, the stock supply assembly supplies the stock material to the forming assembly. The forming assembly typically includes a chute within which is disposed a three-dimensional wire forming frame, the conical body and forming frame causing an inward rolling of the lateral edges of the sheet-like stock material to form a continuous strip having lateral pillow-like portions and a thin central band. The gear assembly, powered by a feed motor, pulls the stock material through the machine and also coins the central band of the continuous strip to form a coined strip. The coined strip travels downstream to the cutting assembly which cuts the coined strip into pads of a desired length.